Showcase

I would love for everyone in the school and the community to understand the other people in the community that have and intellectual or developmental disability. I think having a play or something that would let people with disabilities showcase their talents would help them become more accepted and appreciated.

There are some plays that star only people who have some sort of disability. I think this is great. The only ones I have known of star only adults though. I want to change that. I want to have a play in the Cedar Rapids community that would star kids, and teenagers. I think this would help with the community accepting the people who have disabilities more. It would also give them an opportunity to show off some of their talent. It might help us find someone with talent that could end up being another big time actor, like Lauren Potter, or Jim Parsons.

If those actors were not given a chance to show off their talent, they would have never developed it and pursued their dreams. I think it is so great we have those two actors breaking stereotypes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. If someone had not given them a chance, they might have never been discovered and two very popular TV shows might not be on, or as good. I think everyone around here know who Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory is. Most people, however, do not know that he has Asperger’s. I do not think people will ever look at him differently because of it, because of what a huge star he is now, but before then I think everyone would have.

Some other way to let someone with a disability showcase their talent is with letting them have a talent show and inviting the whole community. I think this would benefit everyone. It could raise money for those who create it, by charging admission. Having a talent show can also showcase the talents of the people with disabilities. This can help also help the people in community, by providing entertainment, and showing them you do not have to be disability free to have a talent.

Having a local sports team for people with disabilities can also help showcase their talent. If everyone with a disability had something they could do and wanted to do, it would create a much better community for them to live in. I think that more people would go to see this if it was a sports team for the city. I think if more cities did this people could go watch them and enjoy it. I think everyone deserves a chance to show off their talent.

BB Activities

There are a lot of different Best Buddies activities you can do in the spring. There are different things for holidays that are coming up and just activities in general. This will hopefully give you some ideas on what to do for some Best Buddies spring activities. By the end of the year it can be challenging to come up with more activities.

You can do something for Easter. There can be an Easter party, similar to a Christmas party. You can have all sorts of activities for this. They can range from dying Easter eggs to making drawings. For dying Easter eggs you need to make sure there is something covering tables to ensure there will be less of a mess. Another Easter activity is an egg scavenger hunt. This can be done indoors, or outside. It is always fun and people love getting candy.

Dying t-shirts is also something fun to do in the spring time, when it is nice out. You always need a backup plan in case it rains. For the backup plan you need table covers and gloves. Tie dying is always messy. To me it seems like you almost always get dye on everything, no matter how much you try not to. Every year when we do this inside we get dye all over the tables. It is always nice to have something that can take off the dye that has dried. I feel like it is inevitable, something will get covered in dye or stained by it. You can reuse the bottles you use to tie dye the shirts. Just make sure they are cleaned completely.

Another idea is having talent show. I like to have this at the end of the year in the spring, because people know their buddies better than they did at the beginning of the year. I think they could either help their buddy or preform with them. It would provide bonding time and make the talent show a success. I really hope ours goes well this year. I want every buddy pair to be successful, and have a great time preforming. I would also like the whole school here to see it. I want everyone to get applause and feel extremely special. Student without disabilities have more opportunities to show off talents, but this would be their one special night where they get to show everyone how talented they are, and what they can do.

State vs State

State for People not in Special Olympics is celebrated a lot. It is a major victory for the whole school. People get all excited, miss school to see it, and have a huge party or send off. I do not see why it is not the same for the students who make it to state in the Special Olympics.

If you make it to Sate in Special Olympics it is just as big of a deal. It takes a lot of hard work on the student’s part and is not easy to do. They, like the people not in Special Olympics, should get praise for all of their hard work. It takes a lot of work to be a qualifier for the State Special Olympics. It is a huge deal and I wish more people would realize it.

I wish there would be more attendance at the Special Olympics games. The students work really hard, and they do not get praised enough for it. I think schools should make it so that students care about the Special Olympics, and do not just dismiss the fact it is happening. When other sports make it to state there is a lot of praise, a lot of celebration, and a huge crowd watching. It is mainly only parents at the Special Olympics games. There are also some family members, but mainly just parents. At the state competition for other students there are parents, family members, friends and other students there cheering for the athletes participating in it. Having other students there makes participating in the games more special and fun.

This year I hope to show my school that students in the Special Olympics are very talented and deserve to be recognized for it. We are doing a huge State send off for people in that made it to State in the Special Olympics. None of the athletes know yet. I got the administrators to agree to do it and we got an okay from the teacher. I think this year having the sendoff for state will make the students more appreciative of the Special Education students.

Special Olympics

Special Olympics is a sports competition for people who have disabilities. There are all kinds of different sports that are included in the Olympics. There is a Special Olympics home page that tells you what someone can compete in. They get a lot of different awards and a lot of praise for their hard work. It is a great thing to have.

There are both summer and winter sports which have different Olympics. These events are held in different cities, then after the different events are held in the different cities, the first place winners in each event go to state. State is much more competitive and really great to watch. The winners from that can go on to nationals and compete.

I think this boosts the self-esteem of many students who have disabilities. This can create a better community, like unified sports does. It helps the people who have disabilities get more acceptance in their community. This program lets people have some activity in sports so they can feel just like everyone else. This is very important to have everywhere, so people with disabilities can have more opportunities.

I think every country should have these. I think it is becoming increasingly imperative because the number of people who have disabilities are rising considerably. If there are more people with disabilities, then there are more people that can get some benefit of these sports.

This is a wonderful opportunity that we are lucky to have here. There are many different states who participate in these games, it really connects people with disabilities around the United States. I think this helps our whole nation grow because the more we come to treat people who have disabilities as other people, the more we will all grow as people. It will benefit both people with disabilities, and those without. 

If we get to participate in sports, have our Olympics, and have amazing athletes, I think it is only fair that students with intellectual or developmental disabilities should get the same opportunity. These games level the playing field, because they get to compete with other athletes struggling with the same things they are, and it is equally matched.

There sadly isn’t this opportunity everywhere, though. We are lucky enough to have it in Iowa, but not every other state or country is the same. I think all countries around the world should have these games, so everyone gets their chance to be a star.

Unified Sports

Unified sports can be done at any school. This is a team of both special education students and general education students pairing up to make a whole unified team. These can be members with both high functioning and low functioning disabilities. These are very helpful for all students including the general education students. I personally feel that the students in the general education classes get more from it. There is no feeling better than the feeling that you just helped someone and made a difference in their life.

This creates a more unified community and a more unified school. These are great because a more unified school or more unified community creates more acceptance in both. A lot of people are good about accepting others, but not hanging out with them and fully accepting them, so this would help. These kinds of sports would better even the most accepting communities.

Schools can create these or someone can in the community. They can be any range of sports, and if they are good at it they can compete in the Special Olympics. There can be anything from cheerleading teams to bocce ball teams. You could even create your own sport to compete in. If you do that though, you cannot compete in the Special Olympics, and you will not have teams to compete against.

This will help with Best Buddies as well. You can use these sports as bonding with your buddy, or go watch some competition they are in. This creates stronger friendships and longer lasting ones. I know I feel closer to teammates and they become your friends or even are sometimes referred to as a sports family. 

I want to start a unified sports team at my school. I think it will help promote inclusion and help make others more knowledgeable about students with disabilities. I want to show everyone the other students can be just like us. They can participate in sports, and do anything we can. I think it will help because they will get to celebrate wins just like we do and get celebrated in the school. They can also get awards and have fun. I think it is a win for everyone.

Stereotypes

 Are kids with disabilities being stereotyped? The plane answer is yes. A lot of students get stereotyped both at school, and in the media. There are many different stereotypes that go along with having a disability.

In movies people who have disabilities are stereotypically adults, with a child’s mind. This is not true for a lot of the students I work with. They are not as mature, but do not like everything an elementary student would. There are some that are like that, but it is usually brain damage at a younger age that leads to that. Their brain just sort of cannot grow much past the age they suffered damage to it, depending on how severe the injury was.

They are also stereotypically put in more severe disabilities than they have. There is a huge range of disabilities that occur. Some are so slight you would not even know they are there. The most famous one is Jim Parsons, who plays Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the TV show The Big Bang Theory. He has mild Asperger’s, and is still a huge celebrity and famous actor. Almost nobody knows he has the disability, because he seems so normal. This is true of a lot of people with disabilities. Sometimes you can’t tell if a person has a disability or not.

How does this affect them? I will use Jim Parsons for an example again, he was ashamed of it and kept it a secret from everyone. He didn't want to be treated differently, and he was ashamed of the disability, because of all the negative thoughts and stereotypes that go along with it. I also get students who have the disabilities coming up to me and asking me why they have them, or why they are treated a certain way. It always breaks my heart when I get those questions.

How can it be prevented? The media can help stop this. They can quit portraying the people with disabilities as these extremely severe cases. They can help make it so they become more accepted and welcomed into the community. If they used actual actors who have disabilities to play their roles it would help a lot.

Sadly stereotypes in former schools have led to bullying, name calling, and other horrible things. I remember in elementary school other peers would pretend to be autistic and flap their arms. They would also say things like, “Don’t touch the railing, the autistic kids wipe boogers on them.” It is little things like this that lead to worse stereotypes and people not accepting others. Thankfully they usually grow out of saying things like this.

What Can I Do To Help

This question can be asked by both parents, siblings, and family members. It can also be asked by family friends and other people in communities with special needs kids. There can be a lot of people helped if this question was answered.

If parents want to help they can put the students with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities in sports. There are great things they can do. If they are deaf they could be in football and possibly play at Gallaudet. Their football team is doing great! There are also other Special Olympic sports they can participate in if they have other disabilities. I am going to write a section on that for next week and will link it after I get it on.

There are other things parents can do to help like putting their kids in clubs or other activities. It does not have to be sports. There are so many things a child with a disability can do now. I am personally going to help put on a play that all the actors are high school aged children with disabilities soon. That will be a lot of fun.

Siblings can help by babysitting or doing a number of things. They can babysit their younger siblings, like most other siblings do. They can help drive them around or be there when they get picked up or dropped off. They can also help by doing simple chores around the house. It is already stressful having a child with a disability, but having a messy house to clean every night does not help.

Family members and friends can help by doing things similar to siblings. They can help watch the kids, provide help for parents, and even drive the other kids to activities. These are all things other parents do for each other. They can also provide a huge service to the parents and be moral support. This is a big deal to a lot of parents, because they do not get a lot of time to themselves and they sometimes just need to relax. They moral support can go a long way as well. Just knowing someone is there for you and you can talk to them makes life easier.

Others in the community can help by volunteering. This does not help parents, but helps the child. This helps get them friends and makes them feel more welcome in the community. It also is rewarding for yourself because there is nothing better than the feeling of helping someone.